Burmese Standard Bearers

There seems to have been something of a painting malaise hanging over 'Awdry Towers' of late; projects have stalled and targets have been missed!  I'm putting it down to several contributing factors, not least the return to work after a rather wonderful summer break.  That said a little progress has been made; these two chaps have been lurking around the periphery of the lead mountain for what seems like an age, unsure as I was, as to how to fashion their standards.  Fortunately help was on hand in the form of Ian Heath's invaluable series, 'Armies of the 19th Century', particularly the volume entitled, 'Asia - Burma and Indo-China'.

The regimental standards would come in a variety of shapes and colours, but often bifurcated.  The triangular regimental, red pennants were attached to a bamboo poles, which was surmounted by a glass globe or an inverted English decanter.  The black cross was often used to symbolise the dynasty's artillery, which was operated predominately by Christians since its formation in the mid-18th Century.

These standards were made from foil wrapped around piano wire with a couple beads on top to represent the glass orbs or decanters.

In other news:

On Sunday 'Awdry Towers' received a visit from Mike 'The Dark Templar' Reynolds.  Mike was undertaking a massive 657 mile and 35 hour road trip travelling to Plymouth and back to meet up with Joey Berry in a bid to promote the auction on her youtube channel.  It was an absolute delight to finally meet the man behind the madness that has been, 'A Tale of 3 Painters' and to see the models together; the skill of both Mike and Andy is just superb and I can't express just how much I've learnt from both of them along the way.  The auction goes live tomorrow night (Wednesday) and you can get up to date with the goodies bundle and other news by visiting Mike's site 'The Dark Templar'.  Not forgetting, of course, to pay a visit to Andy's sensational, 'The Lair of the Breviks'.

Mike's meeting with Joey